It looks like it’s not just insurers that suddenly want to get out of the health care business. Three Catholic hospitals in Pennsylvania are now on the market, and the hospital management is telling the local media that Obamacare is a major reason why the facilities are being unloaded:Continued here
Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany, who serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, has approved a proposal by diocesan Catholic Charities to distribute free needles to drug abusers in the hope of preventing the spread of AIDS.Some no longer contribute to so-called "Catholic" charities anymore. Too many "Catholic" charities are anything but Catholic. Like most progressives/liberals, they have a misguided, erroneous, and harmful understanding of charity.“I understand there will be questions, but this is common sense,” said Sister Maureen Joyce, CEO of Catholic Charities. “I strongly believe in this. It will save lives.”
“From a theological standpoint, we're not being faithful to our mission if we don't reach out to people addicted to drugs, too,” Sister Joyce added.
An $83,000 van filled with syringes will be parked in two neighborhoods and serve as the focal point of Catholic Charities’ needle distribution efforts.
“This is a proven method used around the country, but there has been a huge gap in this area that nobody was stepping up to fill,” said Angela Keller, executive director of AIDS services for Catholic Charities, whose web site links to the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, whose mission is “to promote the well being of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer identified people and those affected by discrimination based on gender identity and expression.”
In a 2003 address, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, then president of the Pontifical Council of the Family, urged abstinence from drugs to prevent the spread of AIDS. In doing so, he cited a 1987 statement of the bishops of the United States:Even earlier, the bishops of the United States of America affirmed in their 1987 statement: “abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage as well as the avoidance of intravenous drug abuse are the only morally correct and medically sure ways to prevent the spread of AIDS” …During its 2007-8 fiscal year, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, Inc., received $17,973,859 in government grants $3,875,773 in direct public support (i.e., contributions, gifts, and grants), and $474,538 in indirect public support, according to its tax return. It also received $16,358,929 in program service revenue, including government contracts. Other revenue sources such as special events and investment income brought total revenue to $40,093,321...
Prof. Lino Ciccone adds: “Therefore a true and effective prevention is above all the set of initiatives that aim at putting an end to whatever promotes sexual laxity, presented as a triumph of liberty and civilization – similar to what is being done to help youth not to fall into the slavery of drugs or to free them from them. In other words: true prevention takes place only through a serious educational effort. An education free from equivocations and widespread reductive concepts, which leads to the discovery, or rediscovery, of the values of sexuality and a correct scale of values in human life.
“Any other option that excludes such ways, or worse, that implies an ulterior push towards sexual promiscuity and/or the use of drugs, is anything but prevention, and to promote the same is tragically deceitful.”
When Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, was released on July 7, it sparked world-wide discussion and commentary. Catholic World Report asked a group of leading Catholic intellectuals to reflect on the encyclical, its place in the larger body of Catholic social teaching, and Pope Benedict's vision of a well-ordered and just society.Continued here.
J. Brian Benestad, Francis J. Beckwith, Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., Richard Garnett, Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul Kengor, George Neumayr, Joseph Pearce, Tracey Rowland, Father James V. Schall, and Rev. Robert A. Sirico share their thoughts on Caritas in Veritate...
...I turn to a recent conversation I had with my mother. I asked her, "How would you encourage the average American to weather the economic storms of today?"
Here's her advice, in her words:-- "Lean upon God for help and strength. We didn't just have each other to lean on, but we had God, too. We all attended church and belonged to a faith community. Church was the hub of society, the community core and rallying point. Today people turn to government the way we used to turn to churches. It's been that way ever since Herbert Hoover's alleged promise of a 'chicken in every pot' and President Roosevelt's New Deal. Too many have abandoned faith and community. We trust in money more than God. And maybe that's a reason why we're in this economic pickle."Now that's conventional wisdom that should be shouted and posted in every corridor of government, every community across America, and every blog on the Internet.
-- "Get back to the basics. Simplify your life. Live within your means. People have got to be willing to downsize and be OK with it. We must quit borrowing and cut spending. Be grateful for what you have, especially your health and loved ones. Be content with what you have, and remember the stuff will never make you happy. Never. Back then, we didn't have one-hundredth of what people do today, and yet we seemed happier than most today, even during the Great Depression.
-- "Be humble and willing to work. Back then, any work was good work. We picked cotton, picked up cans, scrap metal, whatever it took to get by. Where's that work ethic today? If someone's not being paid $10 an hour today, they're whining and unwilling to work, even if they don't have a job. The message from yesteryear is don't be too proud to do whatever it takes to meet the financial needs of your family.
-- "Be rich in love. We didn't have much. In fact, we had nothing at all, compared to people today, but we had each other. We were poor, but rich in love. We've lost the value of family and friends today, and we've got to gain it back if we're ever to get back on track. If we lose all our stuff and still have one another and our health, what have we really lost?
-- "Be a part of a community. Today people are much more alone, much more isolated. We used to be close with our neighbors. If one person had a bigger or better garden or orchard, they shared the vegetables and fruits with others in need. Society has shifted from caring for one another to being dependent upon government aid and welfare. That is why so many today trust in government to deliver them. They've forgotten an America that used to rally around one another in smaller clusters, called neighborhoods and communities. We must rekindle those local communal fires and relearn the power of that age-old commandment, 'Love thy neighbor.'
-- "Help someone else. We never quit helping others back then. Today too many people are consumed with their own problems and only helping themselves. 'What's in it for me?' is the question most are asking. But back then, it was, 'What can I do to help my neighbor, too?'...
Call me overly pragmatic, but I think a little practical wisdom and encouragement is what we all need about now. Mom always was good for that. She still is.
By Stephanie BlockThe problems are manifest and deeply rooted:
For nearly forty years, The Wanderer has followed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's funding of radical, left-wing political organizations, many of them carrying the brand of Saul Alinsky. The Wanderer also covered the first Call to Action conference - the months of "hearings" leading up to it, its orchestrated structure and contrived demands - and our reporters commented on the Alinskyian nature of it, not merely in its tactics but in its outcomes. In hindsight, we can see that organized dissent in the Church was a product of organized parishes, filled with Alinskyian-trained laity.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is responsible for that. [my emphasis]
It is also responsible, in some part, for the fact that forty years later, we have a virulently pro-abortion, pro-homosexual presidential candidate whose principle political training has been in Alinskyian organizing. While he - Barak Obama - was lead organizer in Chicago for the Developing Communities Project, it received a $40,000 Catholic Campaign for Human Development grant in 1985 and a $33,000 grant in 1986.
While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel....
....millions of dollars of Catholic money over the last four decades going into Alinskyian community organizing....
Relatively little from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection goes to "help the poor." .... [Even though Catholics were led to believe that they were "helping the poor"]
...The Catholics involved in the extensive trainings these networks offer are not catechized in Catholic principles of social activism or political analysis but in Marxist analysis and praxis.....
Catholics trained in Alinskyian thought become confused about the comparative moral weight of the issues they encounter in the public arena. They also become confused about the legitimate authority of the Church....It is not authentic "Catholic Action" for Catholics to engage in such Alinskyian-trained "community organizing." It is antithetical to true social justice and Catholic teaching.
Even the politically naïve are fascinated by the pejorative dismissal of Obama as a "community organizer" and his campaign's rebuttal that to disrespect community organizers is to disrespect Catholic Action.
After 40 years of funding the bad guys, it's time to stop.NB: In the epigraph of his book, Rules for Radicals, Alinsky notes
__________________
"Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins -- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer." [Source]
On October 29, 1992, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira granted an interview to the Brazilian newspaper, O Globo, about the problem of homosexuality and its threat to the family. We reproduce the interview for the benefit of our readers.An interview very well worth reading.
Q. What is your opinion about the increase of homosexuality in Brazilian society? Do you believe it harms family integrity?
The effect of homosexuality on the family in Brazil is the same as everywhere else.
Since the homosexual relationship is sterile by definition, it is destructive of the family; it is the opposite of the family, and the number one enemy of the family....Homosexuality is completely contrary to the natural order and therefore contrary to the family.....
Joanne D. Nattrass, executive director of Commonwealth Catholic Charities...said in a statement that Catholic Charities staff members assisted the girl in preparations leading up to the abortion.What exactly does "assisted the girl in preparations leading up to the abortion" mean? Everything up and until when the "doctor" (murderer) performed his execution?
A social worker signed a consent form and "a person associated with CCC" took her to and from the abortion facility, Nattrass said.Was this a State "social worker" or someone in the employ of CCC? And what does "a person associated with CCC" really mean - volunteer? staff member?
Two months earlier, Catholic Charities staff assisted the girl in the implantation of a contraceptive device, she said.It sounds like there are real problems at this "Catholic charity." It's difficult, at best, to believe that this was an isolated incident.
"Both the implantation of the contraceptive device and the abortion were contrary to basic teachings of the Catholic [C]hurch," Nattrass said in the statement.One can't help but wonder when she come to this realization?
She said that she is not aware of any other previous abortions involving minors in Catholic Charities' care.Was she even aware of this one before it became public knowledge? Perhaps an investigation is in order? Sounds like someone is unaware of what goes on under her "watch." How many others have been treated with such "loving care" from this organization? Sounds more like a Planned Parenthood office than a Catholic charity!
Dear Friends,
We now launch phase two of HLI’s Humanae Vitae Initiative!
As you know, in 1968 there were demonstrations by theologians and students against Humanae Vitae. Imagine taking to the streets against the Magisterium. Clergy also signed petitions objecting to the document, as if petitions could alter the Truth!
Now HLI is offering an opportunity to right that disgrace by offering clergy the opportunity to sign their names to a pledge in support of Humanae vitae. A generation later time has vindicated the truth of Humanae Vitae in the destruction we have brought upon our heads by rejecting God’s prophet Pope Paul VI when he uttered the warning of the disaster that would ensue if contraception became widespread. Foolish theologians mocked the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human sexuality as “pelvic issues.”
Today almost every major issue confronting the Church could have been avoided by adherence to Humanae Vitae: Abortion, widespread promiscuity, abuse of woman and children, skyrocketing divorce, a decline in religious vocations, bioethical nightmares, coercive population control, widespread homosexuality (owing to the separation of sex from procreation) and even excessive female hormones in the water supply affecting fish altering males so they can’t reproduce.
All from sniffing at “pelvic issues.”
Here is this week’s announcement of this petition with an introduction by Father Tom Euteneuer. To download the pledge in PDF form click on the “Sign the Pledge” button.
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/
Or you can access the pledge here:
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/hv_clergy_pledge_assent.pdf
The permanent link is here:
http://www.humanaevitaepriests.org/hv_2008-06-11.html
Tell your bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians! See that they receive a copy of the pledge
God bless you!
John Mallon
Project Director,
Humanae Vitae priests
http://johnmallon.net
BELLEVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- The Roman Catholic bishop of the Belleville diocese plans to begin meeting privately this summer with the diocese's priests in hopes of smoothing communication.Again, we should pray that much good will be the result of this endeavor to open up communication and understanding between the priests and the bishop.
Bishop Edward Braxton says in a letter to priests that the goal of the discussions is to improve dialogue and move beyond was has been contentious relations....
In a bid to ensure the World Youth Day Stations of the Cross will not incite anti-Semitic feelings and appeal to all Christians, organisers have dropped six traditional stations which have no scriptural foundation.The sensibilities and sensitivities of faithful Catholics are irrelevant, it appears...I can't count the number of people who, after praying the St Alphonsus Liguori version of the Stations of the Cross, rush out the doors looking to satisfy their "anti-Semitic feelings."
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Church has changed one of its most popular devotions and a landmark event of World Youth Day to take account of the sensitivities of Jews and draw other Christian denominations into its youth celebrations....
To make the event more appealing to all Christians, a Vatican approved scriptural version, founded entirely on passages from the New Testament, will be adopted when it is staged in the streets of Sydney on July 18.
It is not the only concession the Church is willing to make in the name of interfaith unity: scriptural texts, reflections and video commentaries will be carefully worked so that the scene at the Sydney Opera House in which Jesus is condemned does not incite anti-Semitic feeling.....
THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS
Megan pulled a three-ring binder out of her bag and showed me a photograph of herself and her husband. Young-they're both 21-with big smiles on their faces and obviously wildly in love. "That's what he looked like," she said with a somber face, "He was such a cutie-pie?always buying me little stuffed animals and writing the most thoughtful notes the entire time he was in Iraq." Then she showed me the photo of her husband receiving the Purple Heart on Wednesday from President Bush at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. As President Bush pinned the medal on Mike, he lay unconscious in the ICU, having suffered a traumatic brain injury caused by a piece of shrapnel that pierced his temple.
"This is my Mike now," she said, rubbing her eyes. He is completely blind and to alleviate a terrible cranial pressure build-up, doctors had to remove the front of his skull. Since being wounded several months ago, Mike has never regained consciousness and suffers from terrible seizures. "That's my guy," she repeated, before she went on to tell me about how they met and fell in love.
For whatever reason, I kept thinking about the fact that some person somewhere carefully assembled the IED that would eventually maim Mike and many others. They are often packed with nails, hunks of lead and screws to cause maxim human suffering. When they explode, the contents rip through flesh and bones, shattering countless dreams in the process.
How to comprehend this level of evil and the physical and emotional agony it causes? This young woman and her husband should be out buying their first Christmas tree together, going to parties, raising a glass to their future. When I asked what she was doing for the holiday she said, "I'll be here with Mike. I would never want him to be alone on Christmas." They had been married for about three months when Mike was wounded.
In these days before Christmas, Megan and other military wives and moms gave me a precious gift. They reminded me that true love requires sacrifice-sometimes seemingly unbearable, heart-wrenching sacrifice. They are living out their love in big and small ways. Many have moved thousands of miles to relocate to the hospitals where their husbands, wives, sons, and daughters are being treated. This takes an enormous emotional and financial toll, yet they do it for love. When they are not at the hospital bedsides of their wounded warriors, they sit for hours a day in waiting rooms across the United States, hoping for good news-or at least no more bad news. They pray with each other, cry with each other, and yes, even manage to laugh with each other as they hope for a day when they can return to "normal life." Yet for the families of our most seriously injured troops, they know they will have to get used to a "new normal," much different from the life they knew before.
As we are about to celebrate Christmas spending time with our families and friends, let us all do our best to live up to the true spirit of this season-and make it a time filled with love, faith, gratitude, hope, charity, and, yes - let's try for some peace on earth. Let us remember the military families and our wounded heroes who will spend this Christmas at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Brooke Army Medical Center, Bethesda Naval Medical Center and other medical facilities across the nation. As we rush around stressed out because we "haven't found the perfect gift" for so-and-so, these families hope and pray for gifts that cannot be wrapped up: a hand that squeezes back, a smile, the first step on a new prosthesis, or a positive medical report.
They need our prayers and support at Christmas and every day. Please give what you can to any of the wonderful organizations that support our bravest and their families.
Merry Christmas.
GROSSE POINTE PARK, Mich.—Sister Kathy Avery won't put up with swearing on the playground at her school, and she's not above repeating the offending language to make sure everyone understands which words she won't tolerate.Thank you, Sister!
The principal of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School had students stay after a Mass last month and informed the fifth- through eighth-graders that she has a zero-tolerance policy for cursing.
Just in case anyone wasn't sure what she was talking about, Avery read off a list of the very words and phrases that she was banning...
...Cuss words aren't the only things that set Avery off. She's also banned the words "stupid" and "boring."
The first virtue required by the person who is striving for perfection is charity. In all natural things, the first movement, the first inclination or impulse is to tend towards the centre, in obedience to a physical law. The same thing happens in the supernatural sphere: the first movement of our hearts is a movement towards God, which is nothing more than loving our own true good. With good reason Sacred Scripture speaks of charity as the bond of perfect harmony.
Charity has as its close relatives joy and peace. Joy is born of happiness at possessing what we love. Now, from the moment at which the soul knows God, it is naturally led to love Him. If the soul follows this natural impulse which is caused by the Holy Spirit, it is already loving the Supreme Good. This fortunate soul already possesses the beautiful virtue of love. By loving God the soul is certain of possessing Him. When a person loves money, honours and good health, unfortunately, he does not always possess what he loves, whereas he who loves God possesses Him at once.
This idea is not the product of my own mind but is to be found in Holy Scripture where we read: He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (5). What does this scriptural passage mean to tell us? Does it not, perhaps, mean that the soul devoted to God out of love belongs entirely to God, while God gives Himself entirely to that soul?
. . .
It must be noted, however, that as long as we are wayfarers on this earth we can never be perfect, and hence we can never enjoy perfect peace. Trials and contradictions are so many and the conflicts by which the soul is harassed so numerous as to cause it agony at times, to the point at which life itself becomes unbearable. All this arises because the soul sees itself in danger of utter ruin.
Now, to stand up to such harsh trials the soul needs patience, a virtue which enables us to bear all adversity without giving in. Those who are striving for perfection must attribute great importance to this virtue unless they want their efforts to be completely wasted, for it is this virtue which maintains order in one's interior life.
Catholic teaching does not recognise civil divorce as dissolving a marriage, and considers that a person who remarries without a declaration of nullity...from the Church is committing adultery.The story, which can also be read on the Des Moines Register web site (here), notes that the school board had originally declined in July to accept the the resignation of Tom Girsch, age 59, a Catholic who has been a longtime social studies teacher and coach at the high school.
When school officials told Girsch this was grounds for immediate dismissal, he hired [Attorney Mark] Zaiger and an amended contract was negotiated. That contract required Girsch to initiate the annulment process and to submit his resignation if it was denied. The CVCS board would decide whether to accept his resignation, according to the contract.Fortunately, as the subsequent unaminous 12-0 vote indicates, a Catholic "identity" and fidelity to the teachings of the Church are matters which the board members appear to value, having been reminded of their obligations by the Archbishop.
As the board prepared to reconsider that decision Monday, they heard from Archbishop Jerome Hanus through a letter read by Jeff Henderson, the archdiocese superintendent of schools.It's sad that, after 32 years teaching at the school, Girsch chose the path he did. Certainly, one can sympathize with his desire for love and companionship in marriage. But one must always strive to do that which is in accord with the will of God, as revealed in the teachings of our Lord and of His Church - despite how one feels.
Hanus declared the "sacredness and indissolubility of Christian marriage" in the letter. "Teachers play a key role in the teaching of the faith," Henderson read, both through their instruction and how they live. The board is required by its constitution to be in agreement with Catholic doctrine, the letter said.
Henderson read that the board "has attempted to act contrary to" church doctrine, jeopardizing the school system's Catholic identity. "This is unacceptable and requires correction by the CVCS board," he read.
The recent apostolic letter of Pope Benedict XVI on widening the use of the liturgical books of 1962 is prompted by his desire to reach out to those Catholics in schism because of their non-acceptance of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.The good bishop begins his statement by implying what the Holy Father's motu proprio is based on - as if no one else had read Summorum Pontificum...Classic spin...This beginning statement seems to be intended to place the Motu Proprio in a negative light - after all, only "schismatics" are upset with liturgical reforms. Let us recall that the 'schismatics' at the CDWDS recently issued the directive Redemptionis Sacramentum in an effort to quash and reprobate certain "liturgical reforms" which are, in many cases, grave liturgical abuses...
Since the Diocese of Erie already permits the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in two locations, St. Ann Parish in Erie and St. Bernadette Parish in Saegertown, I do not foresee a pressing pastoral need on the part of our people.Since I'm not from Erie, it might be interesting to see how "generous" the bishop has been (are these churches hard to get to or is mass at some strange hour?)
In the future, I will be issuing diocesan norms to help apply and order the specifics of the pope’s letter. Priests who might want to celebrate the Tridentine Mass will be given a rubrical and Latin exam to comply with the pope’s own statement, “The use of the old missal presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language.”How long will it take to 'develop' his 'norms'? Will they be ready by September 14, 2007? Or will the norms need review by some obscure committee to ensure the elimination of what some presume to be 'gender exclusive' words. Or perhaps, with enough 'trick' or subjective questions, few will be able to satisfy the bishop.
Further, there will be need to ascertain that the common good of the parish prevails and to ascertain what constitutes a stable community of those requesting the 1962 missal.Amazing - Many pray for the early retirement of this man. What faithful priests must have to endure with this man as a spiritual father? They must have the patience of Job. And we should pray for them.
Little children. . . a new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another as I have loved you. . .The distinctive feature, the hallmark, the unmistakable sign of discipleship of Christ is going to be, not so much faith or miracles or even martyrdom for Christ, as their love for one another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. (John xiii, 33-35)
Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John xv, 13)Any commentary on so many and such sublime "novelties" of the new precept would only unsettle the deep impression that takes hold of any human heart pondering over them carefully.
"It is hard enough to find anyone who will die on behalf of a just man. . . . but here, as if God meant to prove how well he loves us, it was while we were still sinners that Christ, in his own appointed time, died for us." (Rom. v, 7-8)
" . . . the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal. ii, 20)
"Make use of your base wealth to win yourselves friends, who, when you leave it behind, will welcome you into eternal habitations." (Luke xvi, 9)I shall have the poor sit at the banquet of my love, and I shall be delighted, O Jesus, that they cannot repay me even with their gratitude; because it is Thou who, according to Thy promise, wilt requite me when the just shall rise again.
He that seeth me, seeth the Father also.We are face to face with God when we look upon Christ, and anyone who says he believes in God and loves God but at the same time refuses to acknowledge wd love Christ is to be accounted a liar.
"If a man boasts of loving God, while he hates his own brother, he is a liar."(I John iv, 20)and the same Apostle adduces this apparently strange reason:
"He has seen his brother, and has no love for him; what love can he have for the God he has never seen?" (id.)The love we have for our neighbour, therefore, is the hallmark and gauge of our love for God. And, on the contrary, without this love for our neighbour our love for God is false. There is falsehood and delusion and vain observance - religio vana - in that so-called love and worship of God, in those devotions and prayers of ours, if we lean on them and think to find in them support for despising and judging rashly and slandering or criticising with venom and mercilessly hurting our neighbour by crushing him in his weaknesses or ignoring him callously in his griefs and losses, no matter what his race, his nationality, his position, or even his morals and beliefs.
"I know and I believe in the love God has for me." (I John iv, 16)It is a belief exclusively Catholic. Other cults and sects reject it, it offends them; their spirit of contradiction and denial rather prompts them to ask with the Psalmist:
What is man, O God, that thou shouldst keep him in remembrance?But how can I, who believe in the love God has for man, refuse to love whom God has loved so exceedingly?
